Here’s the current situation: Rishi Sunak has asked his (so-called) independent ethics advisor to “fully investigate” whether Nadhim Zahawi complied with the Ministerial Code in failing to make correct tax payments at the appropriate time.
This will be a big test for Sir Laurie Magnus. Smart thinkers say the purpose of an ethics advisor is to whitewash dodgy behaviour by ministers; if that doesn’t happen, if the decision goes against those in power, then the ethics advisor doesn’t last long in the post. We’ve seen that in recent years.
This is the story so far:
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Liz Truss: Ethics? Integrity? It seems more accurate to suggest she’s just another Tory liar.
Tory leadership contender Liz Truss has said she would not appoint a new ethics advisor to replace the one who quit in protest at Boris Johnson, because she has “always acted with integrity”.
Let’s think about that for a moment, shall we?
In October 2014, as Environment Secretary, Truss announced that her number one priority was bringing back fox hunting, after the Country Land and Business Association lobbied both the Tories and UKIP (remember them?) and it was suggested that UKIP could gain half a million votes if the Tories refused to commit themselves to repealing the Hunting Act.
So it seems Truss wanted to restore fox hunting in order to safeguard Tory votes, rather than because there was anything wrong with the ban. Ethical? Acting with integrity?
In 2016, as Justice Minister, Truss oversaw a jail riot caused by overcrowding and a lack of prison officers. Standards were considered “unacceptable” and fell short of “basic levels of decency” because of the regime inaugurated by her forerunner Chris Grayling and continued by Truss herself. Ethical? Acting with integrity?
In August that year, Truss affirmed the Conservative government’s plan to repeal the Human Rights Act and replace your rights with a much more limited British bill of rights (although the idea was later dropped because other Tory MPs opposed it. Ethical? Acting with integrity?
In 2017 it was revealed that Truss had presided over the largest number of prison suicides since records began in 1978.
In February that year it was revealed that inmates at a privatised prison were incapacitated by drugs, officers sometimes left on their own to manage large groups of inmates, and inmates threatening staff – on Truss’s watch.
That same month, Truss earned her nickname “Lukewarm Liz” after she failed to rebuke newspapers for calling the judiciary “enemies of the people” after the Supreme Court ruled that Parliament should vote on whether to trigger the process of leaving the European Union. It was suggested that her reluctance to defend the judges risked “undermining” society.
Those are just a few examples from a few years ago.
But it seems clear that ethics and integrity are sorely lacking from Ms Truss’s psychological makeup.
Indeed, her claim that the existence of “numerous advisers and independent bodies” was “one of the problems we have got in this country” suggests that she wants even less scrutiny of her decisions. Doesn’t that denote a guilty conscience to you?
And she said she would strengthen the Tory Party whips’ office – the organisation that kept a dossier on party members’ sexual (and other?) … indiscretions… in order to blackmail them? Is that an ethical way to behave? Is it acting with integrity?
It isn’t, is it? And her claim to be doing so would therefore appear to be dishonest. Do we really want yet another brazen liar in 10 Downing Street?
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Elena Narozanski: it seems she’s an amateur boxer.
Elena Narozanski, formerly Boris Johnson’s special advisor on women and equalities, DCMS, and extremism, has become the fifth Downing Street aide to walk out within 24 hours.
And while Tory MPs have been desperately trying to spin the resignations as signs that Johnson is following through on his pledge to clean up what is fast becoming politics’ street of shame, the Tories have admitted that she was not pushed out.
The timing of the resignation – it was announced just after 7.30am today (February 4) left egg on the face of Tory Energy minister Greg Hands, who had already appeared on the morning media round to say that the four resignations yesterday were “the end of the matter” and “the time is now to move on”.
Hands appeared on BBC Breakfast minutes later, trying to tell Naga Munchetty that all the resignations were part of Boris Johnson’s previously-announced shake-up of Downing Street and its practices.
Ms Munchetty made mincemeat of the minister:
Energy Minister Greg Hands says the Prime Minister is not "throwing crew overboard to save himself" in response to the recent resignations of four of his top aides.
Ms Narozanski is said to have been an ally to Ms Mirza and was not part of the clearout.
Former No 10 aide Nikki da Costa said she is “one of the most principled women I know”, adding: “Another big loss to the policy unit.”
This view seems to have been confirmed by Johnson himself, as he has given a desperate speech to Number 10 staff, apparently in a bid to stop further resignations.
He is said to have quoted from Disney film The Lion King, saying, “Change is good.”
But he also admitted, “This is a challenging time.”
I’ll say!
Minutes after this speech, a Downing Street spokesman had to insist that Johnson has not lost control of Number 10 – which of course indicates that he has.
Former Tory minister Malcolm Rifkind has described him as “Toxic”.
And it seems the only thing keeping many Tory backbenchers from demanding a change of leader is the lack of any strong challenger to replace him.
Johnson has surrounded himself with a Cabinet of – shall we say – lesser talents. MPs think Rishi Sunak would not “wow the crowds” while Liz Truss is “too big for her boots”.
Tom Tugendhat, who chairs the Commons Foreign Affairs committee, has said he would run for election to replace Johnson – but very few people seem to have noticed.
It seems all the talent in the Tory Party was expelled when Johnson rid his government of more than 20 members who refused to support his Brexit, back in 2019 – and how right they were!
Now, with public confidence in the prime minister plummetting, it seems ironic that one of his earliest decisions as leader could signal the death knell for his party.
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Isolated: Boris Johnson has tried to show strong leadership by accepting resignations from top advisors who were going anyway. All he has done is show that he is isolated from anybody who could have helped him retain his position as prime minister.
After This Site (and many others) reported that Boris Johnson’s policy advisor Munira Mirza quit her role – after 14 years with him – in disgust at his attempt to shame Keir Starmer for failing to prosecute Jimmy Savile, a further three advisors have quit.
This is hardly a sign of good leadership.
But here are a couple of brainless Tory MP drones saying it’s a sign that Johnson is doing a brilliant job!
I’ll tell you – but you won’t be happy with Boris Johnson when I’m done!
It seems the resignation of Munira Mirza actually rocked Johnson hard. She had been with him for 14 years and quitting in the way she did sent a very clear message that he should be ejected from office; no ifs, no buts.
It left him in a very difficult position, with his authority – and his ability to restore order to Downing Street – under serious question.
So he cast around for a way to at least appear to be exerting control – and his gaze fell on three other advisors: director of communications Jack Doyle, principal private secretary Martin Reynolds and chief of staff Dan Rosenfield.
All have been implicated in the Partygate scandal.
It seems Johnson reasoned that, if he pushed them out, he would present an appearance of acting decisively to restore order to Downing Street after the parties in which they were all involved.
Doyle and Rosenfield are said to have taken part in a party on December 18, 2020, and Doyle is said to have participated in at least one other event. Reynolds allegedly invited around 100 Downing Street staff to a “bring your own booze” party in the garden of 10 Downing Street in May 2020 when the UK was under strict lockdown.
But…
Doyle is also known to have wanted to quit his job after two years in any event, and it is understood that Johnson had previously refused his resignation.
Accepting it now merely makes Johnson look like a scurrilous (as Ms Mirza put it) opportunist and that, rather than forcing anybody out, he is in fact finally letting them go – because it suits him, not them.
Similarly, Rosenfield and Reynolds may have resigned because they feel it is the honourable thing to do after the party revelations. That would lend credence to allegations that these events took place, of course, in contravention of lockdown rules.
So instead of forcing out people who broke the rules, in order to restore order at Number 10, it seems Johnson is instead trying to spin the loss of three top advisors to his advantage.
It won’t work – or shouldn’t, in spite of the best efforts of nobodies like Stuart (who?) Anderson and Chris (who?) Clarkson.
The reason is clear:
No matter why they went, the four resignations mean Johnson has removed the entire top layer of management at 10 Downing Street, isolating himself from his party and showing he lacks any management ability at all – when he should be trying to show strong leadership. And there are plenty of us who can see that.
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His only working strategy: Boris Johnson hasn’t thought through his plan to sack all the advisors who know all the rules he has been breaking since he became prime minister. What does he think they will do?
Boris Johnson is the stupidest prime minister the UK has had in decades if he thinks sacking his top team will help him.
These are the people who know everything that has been going in in Johnson’s corrupt Tory administration since he became prime minister in 2019. They have the keys to all the cupboards where the skeletons are buried.
After Dominic Cummings, Johnson should know that it is much better for him to have people inside his tent – if you will forgive the expression, pissing out, than outside it, pissing in.
Personally, This Writer cannot wait to hear the stories that will come out in the weeks and months after any such boneheaded move by Johnson.
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Samuel Kasumu, the Tory government’s top advisor on ethnic minorities, has finally quit – over a controversial report that claims there’s no institutional racism in the UK.
Mr Kasumu is known to have had deep concerns about government policy on race; he submitted his resignation in February, while working to promote the Covid-19 vaccination programme among minority ethnic groups.
At the time, he accused the Tory government of promoting “a politics steeped in division”.
He agreed to remain only after senior government figures like Nadhim Zahawi lobbied him to stay on.
It seems the racism report was the last straw.
Sadly we have no comment from Mr Kasumu himself explaining the reasoning behind his decision.
Downing Street has leapt in to “manage” the resignation with a claim that he had been planning to leave the government in May anyway.
That may be true, but: It isn’t May now. It’s April. Therefore he has left early. And right after publication of a report whitewashing the government’s record on racism – a record he has very clearly criticised in the past.
In This Writer’s opinion, there’s only one conclusion to draw:
The Tories’ top black advisor quit because he knows his government is racist and he can’t stand the hypocrisy any more.
Even the Tory-supporting BBC seems to agree:
Samuel Kasumu has been unhappy with the government’s stance on race for some time, sources say.
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Liz Truss: she slipped her buddy Andrew Mills £150 million for useless PPE, launching a huge corruption scandal in the process. Now the Tories have quietly dropped him from his position as an unpaid advisor to the Board of Trade.
Some might say it’s poetic justice that Andrew Mills, the man who advised Liz Truss to buy unusable face masks for the NHS, has lost his position as an advisor to the Board of Trade.
But what’s happened to all the money that she paid the firm he also (as it happens) advises, Ayanda Capital?
Was that repaid?
If not, then it seems the loss of his unpaid position – as part of a wider reshuffle and not even connected to the PPE scandal – is no punishment at all.
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Neil Ferguson: he broke the rules so he quit. If only some Tories had the same integrity after the event.
How typical of the Tory government and its cronies: this guy joined the others in imposing rules on the rest of us, then decided they didn’t apply to him.
But whereas his politician colleagues have just carried on in-post, doing whatever they like because they can, at least Neil Ferguson has had the integrity to own up and quit.
Personally, I can’t blame him for wanting some pleasant company. After nearly six weeks of lockdown, I’m starting to look forward to seeing customers at the supermarket (albeit at two metres’ distance).
The difference is, I would not endanger others for the sake of a moment’s selfishness.
That’s why this man had to go. Now go back and think on what this says about the Tory politicians.
A key scientist advising the government on the coronavirus pandemic has resigned after reportedly flouting social distancing restrictions, admitting he made an “error of judgement”.
Professor Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist whose modelling convinced Boris Johnson to press ahead with a UK-wide lockdown, stood down from the scientific advisory group for emergencies (Sage) after allegations emerged in the Daily Telegraph.
It was claimed on Tuesday evening that professor Ferguson had allowed a woman to visit him at home in London at least two occasions during the lockdown – despite strict rules against mixing households.
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Former Labour MP John Mann seems to have got the hang of working for the Tories very quickly: like them, he has adopted a strategy of talking at us, but refusing to listen to what we have to say.
In other words, as the government’s advisor on anti-Semitism, he’s no damn good at all.
Michael Rosen – who, let’s be honest, has had a lot to say about anti-Semitism and the way accusations of the same have been weaponised as a political tool by Conservatives – tried to contact Lord Mann about anti-Semitism in the Conservative Party (remember the Tories ennobled him as part of the deal to get him working for them. Some people sell out more easily than others, it seems).
Here, he tells us of the response he received:
There speaks the man who is supposed to deal with 'antisemitism' but can't see or hear 'antisemitism in the Tory Party'. https://t.co/w4wnYACJfO
So it seems the anti-Semitism “Czar” either doesn’t understand his job description or lies about it, and is so uninterested in doing his job that he brands others with insulting labels.
Isn’t that exactly the kind of behaviour that he’s supposed to be fighting?
It is also symptomatic of the kind of government we can expect from Conservatives: the kind that wants to make us listen when it makes pronouncements about fictional scourges but is utterly uninterested in real problems.
Mr Rosen continues:
I'll have to report the Antisemitism Tsar to the Antisemitism Tsar.
Fat lot of good that would do! And that, of course, is precisely the point.
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The Royal College of Psychiatrists has tried to explain its reasons for failing to object to a pilot project in Cornwall in which Job Centre advisors – with no training – decide whether claimants need mental health care.
The department… is trying to cut doctors working on mental health out of the benefit system by claiming that rank-and-file Job Centre advisers are just as able to spot mental health problems – and recommend the best treatment.
They aren’t; they can’t. It’s just a cynical bid to stop people with mental health problems from claiming Employment and Support Allowance or Personal Independence Payment.
The Tory government’s press release stated: “The initiative means work coaches can continue to refer people with mental health conditions to specialist one to one support, without the need for a GP or clinical assessment.”
I responded:
“Without the need”? Translation: “Without the support of evidence from a qualified doctor who can bring their expertise to a benefit tribunal.”
The press release said: “The support is also designed to help people find their way back into the workplace when they’re ready.”
I responded:
Translation: “The intention is to ensure that people with mental illnesses must continue to seek employment, whether they are ready or not.”
Disability News Service is now reporting that the Royal College of Psychiatrists has responded to this insult against its practitioners – after being nudged to do so by no fewer than five disability groups.
RCP states, according to the article, that:
RCP’s social inclusion lead has “continued to raise concerns and provide expert advice about the impact of welfare reform on people with mental illness and those with learning disabilities”.
[It says] it is “clear that anyone undertaking a mental health assessment needs to be sufficiently qualified to do so and, as part of the assessment, should engage with clinicians involved in providing care to the person concerned”.
[It also says] RCP believes that a jobcentre would not be “a suitable therapeutic environment to assess and discuss an individual’s mental health”.
[It adds:] “Having to do so would likely increase the stress and pressure on people with a mental illness when seeking support, and the possibility of them seeing the receipt of benefits as being conditional on them agreeing to mental health treatment.
“In addition, there is a risk that being referred to the wrong type of treatment may reduce the likelihood of seeking help in the future, make their illness worse and increase the likelihood of experiencing a future crisis.”
The disability groups are not happy with this response – and rightly so.
Why the delay in responding? Were these psychiatrists hoping the issue would go away?
Is the RCP going to talk to the Department for Work and Pensions about its concerns? Or were its comments just a sop to the disabled people’s representatives?
And what about the people of Cornwall?
What have they experienced while the RCP stood by in silence?
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